We don’t have to “bring back jobs from China.” Economists explain that exporting low-level jobs and automating free up resources so “we” can have more $ and free time. And places climbing the jobs ladder get jobs.

The problem is how “we” are distributing the gains. Right now a company ships jobs away or automates and a few already-wealthy people in charge of the company get all of the gains. The workers a shit out of luck. They lose homes, etc.

AND on top of that the owners of companies use those job losses to break unions, etc, forcing wages down. “Shut up and accept the pay cut or we’ll fire you.”

Imagine Democracy

It doesn’t have to be that way.

Imagine if “we” all shared the gains, and received more $ and free time. And as those other countries automate, etc., they also get more $ and free time.

What we need is democracy (aka “socialism”,) so we can GET that $ and free time.

Imagine if we had an economic system designed to be of, by and for We the People, where we require that automation and job exports mean those economic gains go to US – We the people – instead of an already-wealthy few.

A company improves efficiency by automating, etc., and the gains go into a fund. As all the companies do this, the fund provides income to working people. People get the same pay and reduced hours because the efficiencies mean there is less work to do. Or they can move up the ladder to more-skilled jobs for more pay.

No hatred
Fuck racists
Blank faces
Time’s changin
One nation
Unification
The vibration
Unfuck the world!
Poverty hit home like a war zone
Check America’s pulse, heard a death tone
Division hitting like a bullet to precision
Kill the dream, kill the vision, now listen
What the fuck are you waiting for?
Stand up and rise like the tide
And move your ass with the quickness
You may live on the hit list
No fear, bare witness
Where’s ya heart at the heartless can’t say
Bow down, just do what the man say
Buy them lie them deny it all day
In a box they locked in the dead lay
Bombs dropping on cities where kids play
Soldiers falling in the name of freedom hey
Civilians buried in the rubble where dreams die
Politicians spew lie after fucking lie
No hatred
Fuck racists
Blank faces
Time’s changin
One nation
Unification
The vibration
Unfuck the world!
No hatred
Fuck racists
Blank faces
Time’s changin
One nation
Unification
The vibration
Unfuck the world!
Hatred lies divided people
Gorgeous anger deeds of evil
After the fall whom the bell calls
Like we all dancing In a ballroom without balls
Talk-walk look out listen
2020 see now, currency is attention
Fascism too many cooks in the kitchen
Exploding phones
Killing drones on a mission
I’m elated to get y’all elevated
God remains God yeah and they hate it
On your knees people
Pledge allegiance to the evil
Everything changed yet nothing’s changed
Bold is change, everything looking strange, yeah
Engineers got millennials living in fear
Give a damn, evil can’t stand yeah
When the people take a stand
No hatred
Fuck racists
Blank faces
Time’s changin
One nation
Unification
The vibration
Unfuck the world!
No hatred
Fuck racists
Blank faces
Time’s changin
One nation
Unification
The vibration
Unfuck the world!
Unfuck the world!
Unfuck the world!
Unfuck the world!
Unfuck the world!
I’m the straw that broke the camel’s back
The gun in the car jack
The night stick that keeps cracking down
The resistance never backing down

]]>23488Voting Systemshttps://seeingtheforest.com/voting-systems/
Sun, 09 Jun 2019 00:37:39 +0000https://seeingtheforest.com/?p=23423Continue reading →]]>How did we move from a voting system where you could be sure who won to voting systems where you have to trust what private companies tell you the results are?

This is good:

“Andrew Appel explores the history of voting and voting fraud as we have transitioned from paper ballots to mechanical voting machines.”

“Mike Gravel represented Alaska as a Democrat from 1969 to 1981. During his time in the Senate, he was noted for his unabashed opposition to the Vietnam War and for reading the Pentagon Papers into the Congressional Record, risking expulsion from the Senate.”

]]>23384So Much For The Systemhttps://seeingtheforest.com/so-much-for-the-system/
Mon, 25 Mar 2019 00:32:16 +0000https://seeingtheforest.com/?p=23360Continue reading →]]>What was left of our “system” has now passed the turning point.

We wanted accountability for crimes we could clearly see with our own eyes. But Republicans effectively killed investigations or oversight in the Congress. The people at the top of the FBI and Justice Dept were removed and the rest held under threat of ruin. The entire system of checks and balances was besieged.

We the People were left hopeless and helpless, no part of our government able to step up and tell us why the crimes we could see happening were continuing. So we put all of our eggs in the Mueller basket for any remaining hope to save us.

We all saw collusion and obstruction in plain sight, and believed the Mueller investigation knew even more. We KNOW there was money laundering, extortion, bribery, fraud, lies and lies and lies and you name it. Don Jr lied to Congress and we know it. Erik Prince did, and we know that. Flynn and Gates and Cohen and others were given light or no sentences so they could tell us what happened.

We know that at the least Trump had lied about his plans to build Trump Tower Moscow. The Russians knew at the time that he had lied so he was compromisable. And he acted compromised. (Meeting alone with Putin with no transcription? Ending sanctions?)

Our remaining hope for accountability lay in Mueller’s investigation and we were let down. The basket dropped and our remaining eggs are broken. Those who want accountability have lost. We failed to kill the king and now we face the consequences. The right’s media/propaganda/lie machine has an ability to set the discourse and reach the public that outweighs our ability to do anything about it. Trump is now exonerated for every crime or future crime and will be beyond reach.

The right-wing drumbeat to leave Trump alone will now become merciless. Dems will now be cast as sore-losers who engaged in a plot to to smear a good, Godley man and his family for political gain. Anyone questioning Trump’s divine right to rule will be marginalized, ostracized, called you name it. Democrats will be the radicals who want to force us into communist training camps

“The MCC Carbon Clock shows how much CO2 can be released into the atmosphere to limit global warming to a maximum of 1.5°C and 2°C, respectively. With just a few clicks, you can compare the estimates for both temperature targets and see how much time is left in each scenario.”

Description: What if taking on climate change could create a better economy and millions of jobs? Check out this short explainer video on the Green New Deal, a bold plan to slash inequality and rebuild our communities while tackling the biggest threat of our time. Voiceover by George Elliott Clarke.

]]>23317Means Testing Suckshttps://seeingtheforest.com/means-testing-sucks/
Thu, 31 Jan 2019 16:08:44 +0000https://seeingtheforest.com/?p=23314Continue reading →]]>In a democracy government should be for everyone equally. If we’re going to have a program just give it to everyone, not just a few people. Limiting like that breeds resentment, of course, but the resentment is the correct reaction because limiting like that is just wrong.

It’s humiliating to have to prove you are poor enough to qualify for a government program, plus the masses of forms you have to fill out require huge bureaucracies to check. There is an assumption you’re trying to cheat. Means testing also sets up people to be ostracized as “Takers”. It tells the non-poor that the government is not for them, they just have to pay for it.

I could go on.

No wonder everyone hates the older generation of Democrats. Well-meaning, but they did this. Social Security, Medicare, even roads and bridges should have been the guide. Everyone deserves the things government does to make our lives better.

]]>23314Corruption: “Take The Gold Or Take The Lead”https://seeingtheforest.com/corruption-take-the-gold-or-take-the-lead/
Fri, 25 Jan 2019 15:45:33 +0000https://seeingtheforest.com/?p=23307Continue reading →]]>Corruption is such an issue… This is part of a 2014 post titled Eric Cantor Goes To His Reward

Neil Barofsky was Special United States Treasury Department Inspector General overseeing the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP). In the preface to his book Bailout: An Inside Account of How Washington Abandoned Main Street While Rescuing Wall Street, Barofsky explained that people in government are given two choices, “the gold or the lead.” From the NY Times review, (emphasis added, for emphasis)

Mr. Barofsky, wearing an unseasonal wool suit at odds with a “Washington-appropriate wardrobe,” is poised to let the hostess seat them at a front table of her choosing, but Mr. Allison insists on a private table in the rear. Then he gets down to business.

“Have you thought at all about what you’ll be doing next?” Mr. Allison asks Mr. Barofsky, soon adding, “Out there in the market, there are consequences for some of the things that you’re saying and the way that you’re saying them.”

“Allison was essentially threatening me with lifelong unemployment,” Mr. Barofsky concludes, and alternatively suggesting a plum government appointment some day if Mr. Barofsky would simply “change your tone.”

When Mr. Barofsky tells his deputy of the exchange, the deputy says, “It was the gold or the lead,” resorting to the lingo of their joint experience prosecuting Latin American drug kingpins in New York: Cooperate and share the riches, or don’t and get plugged.

There are “consequences” if you don’t play ball. But if you do play ball, there are rewards. And everyone knows it.

Cantor represented Wall Street instead of Virginia in the Congress. His Virginia constituents didn’t like it, and booted him. Cantor has gone to his reward: a big pot of Wall Street gold. And everyone knows it.

Solution? Make it a law: No person employed by the government in any capacity may receive compensation in any form that is significantly greater than the compensation they received for their public service, for a period of five years.